‘Challenging’ NHS deficit being reduced in West Midlands, bosses claim

A report to members of the Birmingham and Solihull (BSol) Integrated Care Board showed a £44 million deficit in month 10 of the 2024/25 financial year.

Despite this, the board was reassured they would still meet their forecast breakeven position at the end of the current financial year if the measures put in place continue to be implemented.

Paul Athey, chief finance officer, also confirmed the BSol will be faced with another breakeven target for next year meaning they will continue to face tough challenges in the future.

The current position is a significant improvement from January this year, when it was reported BSol faced a deficit of just over £80 million.

This resulted in NHS England (NHSE) moving BSol into ‘NOF 4’ oversight which saw a review undertaken to ensure all appropriate actions were being taken to improve the position.

One of the main drivers for the deficit continues to be an increase in substantive pay although spend on agency staff is still being reduced.

Mr Athey said: “By month 10, our deficit has reduced down to £44 million. Most colleagues will have been involved in a whole range of conversations at system level and with NHS England over the last couple of months setting out a whole raft of actions we’ve agreed to take.

“If we are able to deliver those it will enable us to deliver a break even position which was our plan submitted at the start of the year.

“That remains a challenging ask. There are a number of difficult decisions in there and there are a number of assumptions we’ve made around being able to manage pressures we’ve been facing during winter.

“But we are still on track to be able to deliver those actions so we expect still to be in a position to meet our break even position for 2024/25.”